History of the Phrase “Marketing Mix”

The term “marketing mix” became popular after Neil H. Borden published his article The Concepts of the Marketing Mix in 1964. In this article Borden explains how he first began using this term in the late 1940’s after James Culliton described the marketikng manager as a “mix of ingredients”. These ingredients in Borden’s teachings included product, planning, price, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding analysis. These ingredients were later grouped by E. Jerome McCarthy into four categories which we now refer to as the four p’s of marketing (NetMBA 2007). The four p’s of marketing make up the marketing mix which is probably the most well known of all the marketing terms. “Its elements are the basic, tactical components of a marketing plan. The four p’s, of the marketing mix elements are product, place, promotion and price” (Marketing teacher 2009). These four elements create the marketing mix which impacts the development of any organization’s marketing strategies and tactics. The concept is simple. Think about a cake and the components of a cake. There are certain ingredients that are required but one can alter how much of each ingredient is added. The same goes with marketing.

The four p’s are required but depending on the organization there may be more emphasis on one and less on another. But one thing remains the same, all four p’s are necessary. “The majority of people use the four p’s but some will use the five p’s and add people. Others may even go up to seven and add people, physical evidence (such as uniforms, facilties, or livery) and process” (NetMBA 2007). The organization that has been selected is the Londoner. The Londoner is an English pub and would be considered in the service industry. This paper will be defining the marketing mix as well as how the four p’s impact the development of the Londoner’s marketing strategies and tactics.

The first of the four p’s of marketing is product. “The product is the physical product or service offered to the consumer. In the case of physical products, it also refers to any services or conveniences that are part of the offering. Product decisions include aspects such as function, appearance, packaging, service, warranty, etc” (Marketing Mix 2009). Generally speaking, when people think of the product they do not think about everything that must be done in preperation for the product to be sold. With any product, however, the goal is to satisfy consumers needs. The name of the product is crucial when trying to sell to people. The name of the organization one has chosen is the “Londoner”. When people hear the name they autimatically think of London, England. With this in mind, the owners decorated the English pub just as English pubs actually are. When people walk in to the Londoner they feel as if they are in London. There are many signs of London, the lighting is dim, and the furniture is rustic.

Then there is the goods that are offered. Being an English pub there are a variety of different English beers such as, Fullers, Boddingtons, Guiness, Old Speckeled hen an so on. There is a variety of different types of food on the menu as well. The majority of the menu is Indian food, which is considered English food. Many people are not aware of the strong Indian roots that England has but they do. So by honoring England the menu has items such as Bangers and Mash, Shepards Pie, Chips and Curry, and Chicken Tiki Masala just to name a few. Keeping with the theme of London, the juke box also has famous English bands on there such as The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones and many more. Being an English pub, many of the customers are English themseleves. Another part of the packaging of the Londoner is that they show all the soccer games world wide. This is a vital part of the Londoner’s marketing strategy. Many bars around Dallas tend to only show the most popular sports in the United States. Seeing how soccer is not as popular as football in the United States most places do not show it. What poeple do not realize is that soccer is the most popular sport in the world. The Londoner is aware of this and they show all the games. Since the Londoner is one of the only places that shows all the soccer games, poeple come from all over the metroplex to watch the games and spend their money. The best part about the Londoner showing these games, is that unlike every other sport, soccer goes year round.

The second element in the marketing mix is place. “Place (or placement) decisions are those associated with channels of distribution that serve as the means for getting the product to the target customers. The distribution system performs transactional, logistical, and facilitating functions. Distribution decisions include market coverage, channel member selection, logistics, and levels of service” (Marketing Mix 2009). Place looks at location, how the product will get to where it needs to and how the product will then be sold. Many times place includes retailers, whole sellers and if it is on the internet then is would include a direct channel. The Londoner sells primarly food and drinks. This being said, the majority of the products are bought from whole sellers. There is a delivery once a week that delivers napkins, straws, food, alcohol etc to the store. Inventory is done once a week by management to determine what, and how much the store needs, then the order is placed.

The third elements of the marketing mix is price. The price of the product does not always mean the specific price but often times it is refering to the price policy. According to Marketing Mix 2009, “Pricing decisions should take into account profit margins and the probable pricing response of competitors. Pricing includes not only the list price, but also discounts, financing, and other options such as leasing.” Depending on the product, the location and many other varibables the price of the product may change from one location to another. The price of the product is typically determined by the quality of the product and the target consumers. The price of items sold at the Londoner are aimed towards the middle class. Drinks are affordable as well as the food. If the food was expensive no one would come and business would suffer. If the products were priced to low then there would be any profit made. On the slowest days of the week, Sunday and Monday, the Londoner does happy hour all day. The reason for this is to bring business in. During the summer prices tend to drop a little. This is because the summer is the slow season. During the summer people tend to go to other bars where the patio is bigger so the Londoner lowers prices and run more specials to keep people coming back.

The final element of the marketing mix is promotion. Often times people think of “promotion” as the sales part of the mix. Sales is a part of promotion as well as advertising and public relations. “Promotion decisions are those related to communicating and selling to potential consumers. Since these costs can be large in proportion to the product price, a break-even analysis should be performed when making promotion decisions. It is useful to know the value of a customer in order to determine whether additional customers are worth the cost of acquiring them. Promotion decisions involve advertising, public relations, media types, etc” (Marketing Mix 2009). Promotion is a big part of the Londoner’s marketing stratgies. When someone wants a vodka cranberry, for example, the customer is always asked if they want grey goose. This is called up saleing and the reason for this is to sale a better vodka because it costs more. Another way the Londoner promotes themselves is by going to events like The Taste of Addison. Going to events like the Taste of Addison is a great way to get the word out about the Londoner. At events like this people can try the food and get toknow some of the employees in hopes of helping buisness.

The marketing mix is a major part of any organization marketing strategies. Each element, product, place, price and promotion all contribute to an organizations success. The Londoner would not be as successful as they are if any of the four p’s were left out.

NetMBA (2007). Business Knowledge Center. The Marketing Mix (The 4 P’s of Marketing). Retrieved July 14, 2009 from http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/

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